UPDATE 8:42 pm: According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo and other reports this trade has at the very least “cooled down” and may be dead. Woj suggests that, as he has done on other deals that reached the point of just needing a final approval, Bobcats owner Michael Jordan may have gotten cold feet.

The deal is not dead but appears to be on hold.

UPDATE 3:51 pm: It looks like it is a done deal or very close — Gerald Wallace has been traded to the Portland Trail Blazers, according to a tweet from the well connected Dwight Jaynes. (No other confirmations, yet, but he is a good source.) And no, Nicolas Batum is not part of the package headed back to Charlotte. That makes this a win for Portland at first glance.

The deal will send Joel Pryzbilla, some draft picks and cash and back to Charlotte. That’s it. The Bobcats had been working hard to save money and that seems to be what they get out of this deal. Not players that make them better.

Portland, with Batum and Wallace at the two and three, could be one of the best defensive teams on the perimeter in the league. What’s kind of sad to think is that if they had the old, explosive Brandon Roy and a functional Greg Oden this team would be a serious playoff threat to the West elite.

3:05 pm: It seems a number of teams love them some Gerald Wallace. Which make sense — he is one of he more unheralded quality small forwards in the league.

I get the Blazers pushing, but what will they give up? Reports are the Bobcats are asking for Nicolas Batum to be part of the deal. The Trail Blazers don’t want to put the young French wing player in any trade. They shouldn’t in this case. Sure, Wallace is the better offensive player but he is also eight years older than Batum and more expensive

That said, there is value if you can get Wallace at he right price (Portland was thinking more like Rudy Fernandez and filler). Wallace, he is a quality three who is strong at both ends of the floor. His shooting numbers are down this season — 15.6 points per game on 43 percent shooting —because he is getting to the rim less often and shooting more from 16 feet out. That may change on a team with other quality offensive options.

Clearly the Bobcats are listening to offers but they wisely want a lot back for such a big chip. That may be too much for teams looking to steal a player. Still, it’s a name to watch.

That’s a fine sentiment. Saying it publicly is another matter. Not even Harden did that a couple years ago. He was recorded during a pregame team huddle.

There’s a fine line between self-fulfilling confidence and providing bulletin-board material to the opponent. There’s already some animosity between the teams stemming from the Stephen Curry-Harden MVP race in 2015, and it has bubbled since. No matter how harmless Capela’s remark might have been intended to be, it’ll be met contentiously in the Bay Area.

Oklahoma City traded for Victor Oladipo out of Orlando to be their third scorer, behind Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. It didn’t exactly work out that way, Durant bolted town and when Westbrook went off Oladipo was looking for a place to fit in.

That place turned out to be the Pacers.

Oladipo has been playing like an All-Star this season with Indiana, and last week he was key in snapping Cleveland’s 13 game win streak, then turned around and dropped 47 points on Denver. For the week he averaged 35.7 points a game, shot 45.7 percent from three, plus grabbed 7.7 rebounds per game.